Texas Capital Bank Gains A Broader View of Fraud Landscape

Using an online forum provided by Guardian Analytics, the bank has collaborated with other institutions to better protect itself.

The issue of sharing fraud and security data between different financial institutions has been growing as banks have experienced more sophisticated attacks over the last couple of years. Texas Capital Bank has gained a better understanding of the threat landscape through collaboration with other institutions via Guardian Analytics’ FraudMAP Connect, a forum for Guardian’s client institutions to discuss trends and events that they’re seeing in the fraud space.

“Fraudsters are sharing information with each other every day. It’s a race. So it’s important for us to collaborate. Institutions can be more uniform in how we approach fraud,” Trent Trimble, vice president and solutions architect for Texas Capital Bank, says.

While some in the banking industry may have reservations about sharing information with other institutions regarding fraud threats and actions, Trimble says that hasn’t been an issue for Texas Capital.

“We don’t share any private customer information or anything about the bank’s strategy. It’s not a Facebook for us,” he notes. “It’s just provided us with more information so we know what types of attacks are out there. We can see if there has been a spike in phishing or malware attacks with other institutions.”

Texas Capital Bank ($10.8 billion in assets) started using the Connect solution after learning about it at Guardian Analytics’ client conference earlier this year.

Guardian Analytics found through the client conference that there was pent up demand for more collaboration on security threats, Tiffany Riley, VP of marketing for Guardian, says. “The benefit of joining forces outweighs the doubts around sharing data and information. Many banks are already talking about these issues at the conference, so this is a chance for those conversations to continue online,” she explains.

Texas Capital was one of the banks interested because of the opportunity to keep dialogue going between institutions. “We always found the customer conferences very beneficial because of the opportunity to talk to other banks and get a sense of what they’re seeing… With FraudMAP Connect we can now carry on those conversations year-round,” Trimble says.

There have been a couple of times that Texas Capital has received fraud intel through FraudMap Connect before any other sources, Trimble shares, allowing the bank to make quick tactical adjustments.

Texas Capital has been limited its number of users who can engage with other institutions in the forum to manage any reputational risk that could result from sharing sensitive data, he added.

The discussions on the forum also go beyond security, says Trimble. Banks also talk to each other about compliance issues in the forum.

“On the compliance side we can see what other banks are doing and talk about what their experience has been. It helps to validate our strategy to learn from others,” Trimble explains.

Guardian has nearly 80% of its customers signed up to FraudMAP Connect. Besides the discussions between users in the forum, Guardian also brings in analyst and law enforcement specialists in “ask the expert” type sessions to answer banks’ questions, and Guardian also posts info on the forum such as consolidated and anonymized data about certain threats.

Going forward Texas Capital’s Trimble says it will be important to add more banks and users to the forum. “Growing the community will mean more responses when I post something. So the more users that are added, the more valuable the community will be,” he explains.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio